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Partitions are Not {just} for Performance October 29, 2009Posted by mwidlake in Architecture, performance, VLDB.
Tags: Architecture, partitions, performance, VLDB
There is a myth that Partitions in Oracle magically aid SQL Query performance, even a general assumption that the main role of partitioning is to aid such query performance. This is not so. There are certainly many cases where Partitioning can aid performance but in my experience they just as often hinder rather than help overall performance.
The myth is so strong that when asked at interview, most DBAs {and even some performance specialists} will site query performance as the main (and occasionally only) benefit of partitioning.
Why can partitions hinder SQL query performance? Let's say for example that you have a 10 million row table and an index on that table. That index has a B-Level of 3, which means it has a root block, one level of branch nodes, a second layer of branch nodes and then the leaf-node level. (NOTE the below diagram shows B-level as 4 on the left of the diagram. That is because it is taken from a presentation I do where I make the point that if the data dictionary says an index has a B-level of 3, there are 4 levels. 3 "branch", so B, and then the 4th "Index leaf entries". The titles on the right indicate this). To access a row in the table via the index Oracle needs to read the root block, two branch blocks and then a leaf block to get the rowid of the record. This allows the table block {and from that the row} to be read. This is depicted in the below diagram, the numbered orange squares represent the blocks as selected in turn from the index and then table:
That is 5 I/O operations to access that row.
Now we partition the table into 5 partitions, 2 million rows each. The index is locally partitioned. If you are lucky, you may, just may, end up with local index partitions with a B-level 1 less then the original table, so in our case a B-level of 2. The often suggest process is now that one partition is considered and that the CBO will read one root node, a branch level block, a leaf block and then the block from the partition.
4 I/Os and a saving of 20% {I'm ignoring for now caching and whether it is physical or logical IO}.
A saving of 20% IF {and only if} you have local index partitions with a lower B-Level than the equivalent non-partitioned index. And the access is to one partition alone.
However, I keep seeing situations where the index look up does not include the partition key. So you get the below situation:
Lacking the partition key, the CBO cannot exclude any partitions – so it has to scan each one. For most partitions, maybe for all but one, no records are found, but the index has to be checked with 3 IO operations each. so in my example 16 I/Os are done to get the one record of interest.
16 I/O operations instead of 5. I numbered them in the diagram.
The situation is often not spotted, at least initially, as the time taken to carry out the extra local index partition scans is "small", especially for specific lookups. Usually any testing is done on a table with only a small number of partitions.
I remember well the first time I came across this {on an Oracle 9.0 database I think}, there was well over 100 partitions and a process that checked many thousands of individual records had slowed down significantly, taking 4 or 5 times as long as before.
An indicator that the problem is occurring is when a single record lookup against the index and then table is taking perhaps several dozen to several hundred consistent gets rather than the 5 or 6 it should. Also, you will see the partition iterator in the explain plan. In that first case where I came across the issue, consistent gets of about 380 per record fetched were being seen for a select that returned 1 record 99% of the time from a single table lookup. I've since seen the same problem on tables with over a thousand partitions, each local index being scanned for a total of almost 5000 consistent gets per record.
You may think that this would be an unusual situation as access against very large tables is either full/partial table scans or lookups on the PK/with a WHERE clause including the partitioning key – but it is actually very common. Partitioned tables are being used more and more in large but generally OLTP applications or sets of records are identified in a datawarehouse that are then checked more specifically with generally row-specific logic. With VLDBs which have many, many partitioned tables with many, many partitions each, the problem is common and often not recognized in the fog of other issues and massive I/O levels.
I've only covered a general performance issue with partitions here, I'll expand on the theme and this simplistic example in the next post.
And yes, there are many ways partitioning CAN aid performance. I aim to get to those too. I really love partitioning.
- 1. Bernard Polarski - October 29, 2009
My 2 reasons for partitioning:
– Manage table purge through drops partitions rather than delete statements ( Improve performance by decreasing load)
– Achieve partition pruning for SQL (Improve performance)
So performance is my only motive and the case you describe is a must to avoid. You have said nothing about the table hash partitioning, which bring nothing in the management area, but only exists for the sake of Performance.
- 3. PdV - October 29, 2009
Nice one Martin.
Good to read that Partitioning is not the solution to all performance-problems.
And the things to watch out for are indeed Partition-Iterator(all), or the scanning of a complete (index-)partition.
The Actual benefits from Partioning are probably in the partition-exchange capabilities. And only for those who can avoid (or afford) the rebuilding of global indexes.
Since you mention the 380 gets per row-returned, I'd be tempted to digress about ratios. 380 is too much (imho, and it all depends of course). Maybe Later.
- 4. Log Buffer #167: a Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs | Pythian Group Blog - October 30, 2009
[…] Widlake illustrates that partitions are not for performance: "There is a myth that Partitions in Oracle magically aid performance, even a general […]
- 5. Jeff Moss - November 3, 2009
I note your response to Bernard, that your title is overselling the point, but the post does seem to be quite negative towards the role partitioning can play in performance – yes, like in your example, it can hinder, when bad design choices are made, but more often than not, in my experience, it improves performance significantly.
Partitioning doesn't have a "main role" – they can help with many aspects of database systems, including scalability, availability, manageability…and, of course, performance.
I don't think it's correct to say that Performance is the main reason for partitioning, nor the only one, however, I don't think it would be fair to pick out any one system characteristic as being the main goal of partitioning…features such as partitioning are so valuable because they are multi faceted and offer enormous opportunities for system efficiency/design wins, on many levels.
I find it strange that your experience suggests that partitioning just as often hinders, rather than helps, performance – I notice you've worked on some large systems including data warehouses, well, in the words of Tim Gorman, such systems are doomed to almost inevitable failure, without the use of partitioning…because without partitioning, they can't scale, can't be managed and can't perform.
The example you provide is valid, however, I wouldn't say it was common – I saw it on one system at a previous client and, after I diagnosed it and explained the problem, things were redesigned and I've not seen it since on any other database…maybe I'm lucky that I've seen only one occurrence of partitioning causing a performance issue in ten years of using the feature and perhaps it's no coincidence that the scenario where partitioning causes a performance problem is the same one I've seen – perhaps such scenarios are few and far between?
- 6. Jeff Moss - November 6, 2009
Hi Martin
No apology necessary…creating debate/healthy discussion is always useful in my view.
I'm not saying you're way offline…just that your post was a little negative, in my view, towards the concept of performance relating to the use of partitioning.
I think what I don't like is the way you're separating the concept of performance from that of maintenance/manageability…they are related…if you don't use partitions in a DW, where appropriate, then you will create an unmanageable system which can not perform when it tries to do any maintenance. If you use partitions you can (read should) use partition exchange loading which will give you a very manageable system which scales…and because it does so, it will perform.
Is partitioning giving you manageability or performance there?
I'd suggest it's giving both and that in most cases performance increases from the use of partitioning except for specific examples like you showed.
- 7. Jeff Moss - November 9, 2009
Being way ahead of the game makes a change for me…I'll enjoy it while it lasts!
- 8. Blogroll Report 23/10/2009-30/10/2009 « Coskan's Approach to Oracle - November 10, 2009
[…] 11-How partitioning can cause bad performance on wrong partition implementations? Martin Widlake-Partitions are Not for Performance […]
- 9. Friday Philosophy – Oracle Performance Silver Bullet « Martin Widlake's Yet Another Oracle Blog - August 5, 2011
[…] queries to run faster and aids parallel activity. But sometimes (more often than you might think) Partitioning can drop rather than increase query or DML performance. In earlier versions of Oracle setting optimizer_index_caching and optimizer_index_cost_adj was […]
- 10. Friday Philosophy – Oracle Performance Silver Bullet « Ukrainian Oracle User Group - August 6, 2011
[…] queries to run faster and aids parallel activity. But sometimes (more often than you might think) Partitioning can drop rather than increase query or DML performance. In earlier versions of Oracle setting optimizer_index_caching and optimizer_index_cost_adj was […]
- sabari - August 17, 2012
partition is worth for database table's are not???
- 11. Abhishek Kumar - January 16, 2013
hi mwidlake,
I am having prolems in understandig your Point. The local index will have to have a partitioned key as part of the if its unique .Only in nonunique indexes the index will be withoutv a partitioning key. So Will your scenario of adverse performance be applicable only in the cas eof non unique indexes. As even if the lookup is done on an index where partitioning key is not involved in the lookup and index skip scan be done in case of unique indexes locally on each partition and performance will be better.
- 12. Query Performance On Partitioned Tables – petersnotebook - February 1, 2017
- 13. Partitioning InnoDB tables based on time-based pseudo-sequential UUIDs - Too Many Afterthoughts - September 25, 2022
[…] Partitioning has multiple uses – spreading load onto multiple disks, cold storage of older data on cheaper disks, and probably others. Most importantly though, partitions are not for performance. […]

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Navy Yard shooting victims had long careers there
WASHINGTON- A dozen people died in a shooting rampage Monday at the Washington Navy Yard. The shooter also was killed.
It was the deadliest attack at a domestic military installation since November 2009, when an Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and wounded 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas. The stories of the 12 who were gunned down and a police officer who survived are told here.
• MICHAEL ARNOLD, 59, of Lorton, Va., was a Navy veteran and avid pilot who was building a light airplane at his home, said his uncle, Steve Hunter.
"It would have been the first plane he ever owned," Hunter said in a telephone interview from Rochester, Mich., Arnold's hometown. "It's partially assembled in his basement."
Hunter said his nephew retired from the Navy as a commander or lieutenant commander and had previously been stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He worked at the Navy Yard on a team that designed vessels such as the USS Makin Island, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship used by the Marine Corps.
Arnold and his wife, Jolanda, had been married for more than 30 years, Hunter said. They had two grown sons, Eric and Christopher.
Hunter said Arnold returned to Michigan for Labor Day to visit his 80-year-old mother, Patricia.
"He was a loving son of his mother and his wife, and great father to his kids," said Hunter. "It's tragic. How can you get up in the morning and go to work and have that happen? How do bad things like that happen to good people?"
• MARTIN BODROG, 54, lived on a quiet, tree-shaded cul-de-sac in Annandale, Va., where family and friends gathered Tuesday.
Jeff Prowse, a close friend of Bodrog and family spokesman, said Bodrog was a hardworking Navy veteran and graduate of the Naval Academy who cared deeply about his family, his friends and his country.
"A heart of gold, and one of the most humble, self-effacing guys," said Prowse, a burly ex-Marine who paused several times to fight back tears as he talked.
"This is just an absolute tragedy for so many reasons," Prowse said.
Prowse worked with Bodrog at the Pentagon on amphibious vessel programs. He said Bodrog was transferred from the Pentagon to the Navy Yard in January.
Bodrog had been married for 25 years to Melanie, whom he met while she was serving on active duty as a Navy nurse. The couple have three daughters, ages 23, 17 and 16.
Prowse and Bodrog shared a love of the Boston Bruins hockey team and he last spoke to his good friend about a week ago.
"We were actually getting ready to figure out our Bruins schedule for the year," said Prowse, who retired from the military and now lives in southwest Virginia.
Bodrog was active in his church, where he started a Bible study and helped lead preschool and youth programs, Prowse said. In the winter, Bodrog could be seen in shorts and his Boston Bruins jersey, shoveling the driveways of elderly neighbors.
• SYLVIA FRASIER, 53, of Waldorf, Md., had worked at Naval Sea Systems Command as an information assurance manager since 2000, according to a LinkedIn profile in her name.
Frasier studied at Strayer University, earning a bachelor of science in computer information systems in 2000 and a master's in information systems in 2002. Her duties at NAVSEA included providing policy and guidance on network security, and assuring that all computer systems operated by the headquarters met Department of Navy and Department of Defense requirements.
She also led efforts "to establish and implement procedures to investigate security violations or incidents," according to the profile.
Her brother, James Frasier, declined comment Monday night.
• Kathleen Gaarde, 63, of Woodbridge, Va., was a financial analyst who supported the organization responsible for the shipyards, her husband, Douglass, wrote in an email to the AP Tuesday.
Douglass Gaarde declined to speak, but wrote that he was unable to sleep.
"Today my life partner of 42 years (38 of them married) was taken from me, my grown son and daughter, and friends," he wrote. "We were just starting to plan our retirement activities and now none of that matters. It hasn't fully sunk in yet but I know I already dearly miss her."
Madelyn Gaarde, of Grand Junction, Colo., who's married to Douglass Gaarde's brother, said her sister- and brother-in-law met while he was studying electrical engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Douglass Gaarde, an Illinois native, also worked for the Navy until his retirement last year, his sister-in-law said.
"She was a very gracious person and very welcoming," she said of Kathleen Gaarde.
• Logistics analyst John Roger Johnson, 73, was perhaps most notorious for his bear hugs, his daughter said.
"Rib-crunchers," Megan Johnson said with a laugh as she remembered her dad Tuesday. "You didn't have to pay for a chiropractor."
The Derwood, Md., man - the oldest of the victims in Monday's shootings - graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. He studied mathematics, but he went into the field of reliability engineering, said Megan Johnson, third-youngest of his four daughters.
Most recently, Johnson worked with TWD & Associates, Inc., where co-workers knew him as "J.J."
"These were dedicated employees who cared about their work and their colleagues," TWD president Larry Besterman said Tuesday. "The senseless violence that claimed their lives cannot erase the memory of their friendship and contributions."
Johnson was an avid saltwater fisherman but, his daughter said, "could not cook to save his life." He had a place across the road from the ocean at Nags Head on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for more than 20 years.
Megan Johnson said her father was a "die-hard" Washington Redskins football fan. And while the former youth ice hockey player used to feel the same way about the Baltimore Orioles, she said, "I can tell you, he was switching to the Nats," referring to the Washington Nationals baseball franchise.
Colleagues have said Johnson would always greet them with a hearty, "Good morning, Buddy. How you doing?" His daughter said that made her smile.
"I think the key thing there was his jolly, happy-go-lucky self," she said. "An honestly great guy."
Johnson would have celebrated his 74th birthday on Oct. 7. He also leaves his wife of more than eight years, Judy, and four stepchildren.
• Frank Kohler, 50, was a past president of the Rotary Club in Lexington Park, Md. As such, he proudly held the title of "King Oyster" at the annual festival celebrating the region's signature bivalve the third weekend of each October.
"He walks around with a crown and robe and gives out candy," said Bob Allen, Kohler's former boss at Lockheed Martin in southern Maryland. "In fact, he was in charge of the beer stand. I used to have that job and when I left, I handed it off to him."
The married father of two college-age daughters had driven up to the Washington Navy Yard for a meeting Monday when the shootings occurred, friends told Allen. Allen said Kohler had taken over for him as site manager for the defense contractor.
Kohler was working for Information Concepts in Management, LLC, a subcontractor of TWD & Associates, Inc. He had been on the NAVSEA project just under two years, according to a TWD statement released Tuesday.
He was a 1985 graduate of Pennsylvania's Slippery Rock University in computer science. Allen said Kohler was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and an avid, though not overly skilled, golfer.
"He could probably shoot in the low 90s," Allen said in a telephone interview Tuesday from Bradenton, Fla. When Allen retired, Kohler picked his gift - a gold pocket watch with the inscription, "From your friends in Lockheed Martin to help you putt into the future."
Kohler lived on the water with his wife, Michelle, an employee at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Allen said his friend loved to boat and fish, and went on frequent hunting trips to Canada.
"A great family man, a Christian, and a great friend," he said. "It just doesn't seem possible. I mean, you hear about these things all the time ... But when you know somebody, it just makes it all the worse ... It's a huge loss for southern Maryland."
• Information technology specialist Mary Knight, 51, of Reston, Va., had recently received a big promotion and witnessed the marriage of her older daughter, her mother said.
"I don't know how this happened," Liliana DeLorenzo, 76, said from her home in Fayetteville, N.C., Tuesday. "She was a good daughter and a good mother and a hard worker. It's a loss. It's a great loss."
Knight was born in Germany, where 1st Sgt. Frank DeLorenzo, a Green Beret instructor who did a tour in Vietnam, was stationed at the time. When she was about 10, the family was transferred to Fort Bragg, N.C.
Liliana DeLorenzo, a native of Trieste, Italy, said her daughter attended local schools and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"She was a No. 1 student," the proud mother said. "She always liked to go to school."
Knight, the oldest of three children, had recently been promoted at work to GS 15 - the top civil service pay grade, her mother said. Last month, her older daughter, Nicole, 25, married a soldier.
DeLorenzo said Knight's younger daughter, Daniel (she said this was how to spell it), 20, was living with her in Reston while attending college. She said Knight never expressed any concerns about working at the Navy Yard.
Having watched her own husband and other soldiers go off to war, she never dreamed she had to worry about her civilian daughter.
"They survived, these soldiers, Afghanistan, Iraq and all that, and then they get over here and get killed," she said with a sigh. "I don't know what to say. I've been in shock. We've been in shock over such a thing. ...
"You really don't think about the parents and relatives, what they go through. Now I know."
• Marine engineer and naval architect Vishnu Pandit, 61, was a hard-working Indian immigrant, known for his devotion family, community and his 30-year civilian Navy career.
"He was very dedicated to improving the performance of naval ships and systems," longtime friend M. Nuns Jain said Tuesday outside the North Potomac, Md., home where Pandit's family privately mourned. "The only saving grace in this horrible incident is that he died doing what he loved the most in the service of his nation."
Jain said Pandit, a Mumbai native, earned a bachelor's degree in marine engineering in India in 1973 before coming to America and earning a degree in naval architecture from the University of Michigan.
He said Pandit sailed with the U.S. Merchant Marine before joining the Naval Sea Systems Command, headquartered at the Washington Navy Yard.
Married to his wife Anjali since 1978, Pandit had two sons and a granddaughter, Jain said.
"He was a real family man and he loved dogs," including the family's golden retriever, Bailey, Jain said.
Neighbor Satish Misra said Pandit was on the home owners association board in their leafy subdivision, and active in the local Hare Krishna Hindu temple.
"He was a gentle man. I really loved him and his family," Misra said.
Pandit's family issued a statement thanking people for their condolences, thoughts and prayers.
"Our family is dealing with the loss of a kind and gentle man, and kindly requests that our privacy be respected," the statement read.
• Kenneth Proctor, 46, worked as a civilian utilities foreman at the Navy Yard, his ex-wife, Evelyn Proctor, said. He spent 22 years working for the federal government, Evelyn Proctor said.
The Waldorf, Md., woman spoke to Kenneth early Monday morning before he left for work at the Navy Yard. It was his regular call. The high school sweethearts talked every day, even after they divorced this year after 19 years of marriage, and they shared custody of their two teenage sons.
She was in shock about her ex-husband's death.
"He just went in there in the morning for breakfast," Proctor said Monday night of the building where the shooting took place. "He didn't even work in the building. It was a routine thing for him to go there in the morning for breakfast, and unfortunately it happened."
Proctor said she tried to call her ex-husband throughout the day and drove to the Navy Yard on Monday afternoon, fearing the worst. After waiting for about three hours alongside other relatives concerned about their loved ones, she was informed around 8 p.m. that he was among the dead. Officials did not detail the circumstances of his shooting, she said.
The Proctors married in 1994 and divorced this year. Their older son, Kenneth Proctor Jr., 17, enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school this spring and is in basic training in Oklahoma. Their younger son, Kendull Proctor, is 15.
"We were still very close. It wasn't a bitter divorce," Evelyn Proctor said. "We still talked every day, and we lived 10 minutes away from each other."
Kenneth Proctor was born and raised in Charles County, Md., where he lived until his death.
"He loved the Redskins. Loved his kids - a very loving, caring, gentle person. His kids meant a lot to him," Evelyn Proctor said.
• Gerald L. Read's son-in-law, Michael Giffin, said his family was not ready to speak yet about the 58-year-old's death.
"We're still trying to gather our thoughts," said Giffin, who is married to Read's daughter, Jessica. Read was from Alexandria, Va.
• Richard Michael Ridgell, 52, was a passionate protector, both in his security work and in the way he treated his daughters during game-day trips to M&T Field to root for his beloved Baltimore Ravens.
"He was all about protecting us," said daughter Megan outside her mother's Westminster home. She remembered her father guardedly eyeing other spectators as they climbed to their upper-tier seats, making sure she was safe in the roaring crowd.
Ridgell, a former Maryland State Police trooper, was working for a private security contractor at the Washington Navy Yard. Family members said they didn't know details about Ridgell's death.
His children and estranged wife, Tracey, say they want him remembered as a loving, funny and patriotic man who found satisfaction as a security contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan; as a drummer in the all-volunteer Baltimore Colts Marching Band before the Ravens era; and as a successful softball coach to all three daughters, Heather, 33, Megan, 19, and Maddi, 17.
"He was so much more than a shooting victim. He was an amazing person," Megan said.
Ridgell, a native of Brooklyn Park, near Baltimore, was a state trooper from 1983 to 2000, when he resigned at the rank of corporal, spokesman Sgt. Marc Black said.
He did contract security work overseas, according to family members and information Ridgell provided to the rental agent at a Westminster apartment complex where he lived after separating from his wife about two years ago.
The rental agent, Casey Perryman, said Ridgell's love for his children and his country was apparent.
"I think it's just a tragedy that he lost his life doing something he enjoyed so much," she said. "He was all about serving and protecting the people of the United States."
• Metropolitan Police Department Officer Scott Williams was shot multiple times in the legs but survived.
After visiting Williams, Police Chief Cathy Lanier said he has some "pretty serious injuries" and is "pretty uncomfortable" but "in good spirits."
Williams is an officer in the K9 division. He underwent surgery Monday, and before he did, he wanted to call his mother, according to Janis Orlowski, the chief medical officer of MedStar Washington Hospital Center where the officer was recovering Tuesday.
Orlowski initially said Williams had bone and blood vessel damage and there was "concern" about whether he would be able to walk again. But she said Williams, who she estimated to be in his late 40s, was in fair and stable condition.
Lanier also said she was sure Williams would walk again.
"I'm real confident that he not only will walk again but probably will outrun most of us once again," she said.


text: What is the best way to pass the CCIE Enterprise Wireless exam. For the most part this can be a good way to memorize the questions from the test itself and you are 100% guaranteed to pass. It is basically our product experts and does help you as an engineer. We do offer Questions and Answers that will help you study. These questions are designed to test your knowledge and ensure you understand the technology. So, you can pass the exam successfully


text:
Now that we live in a very neighborhoody area of Chicago, my kids really look forward to trick-or-treating. But there is a big Halloween hassle factor. I could do without all the extra sweets and the frustration of figuring out what candy is gluten free and what is not, let alone dealing with food at Halloween parties.
When my daughter was younger, we tried to trade her Halloween candy for a toy. She welcomed the toy, but a day later she was crying for the candy because she didn't really get the concept that "trading in" meant permanently giving up the candy. These days, she's pretty amenable to disposing of gluten-containing candies or trading them with her non-celiac sister. She knows she has much more candy than she'll ever eat anyway.
I get frustrated with candy companies that refuse to print gluten-free lists and instead tell customers to look on the label. I'm sorry, but when we are trick-or-treating or getting a birthday goodie bag with candy, the individual pieces of candy usually don't have a full ingredient list. I wish these companies would serve their customers, instead of their corporate lawyers.
When searching the Web to find out if a candy is gluten-free, make sure you are looking at gluten-free lists from the most recent year, as ingredients do change. The best source of information is always the candy label — even if you have to go to the drug store to look up labels. Also, be sure to check labeling to see if items are made in shared facilities or on shared equipment as items containing gluten. For instance, Brach's candies, Palmer chocolates and Russell Stover chocolates all say that their candies are produced in facilities that handle wheat.
These blogs have thorough lists of gluten-free and allergy-free candy. I am grateful for their research.
Gluten-Free Candy Lists:
Sure Foods Living Allergen-Free and Gluten-Free Halloween Candy List 2011
Sure Foods Living Gluten-Free Halloween Candy Quick List 2011
Jen Cafferty at GFreeLife's 2011 Halloween Gluten Free Candy List
Celiac Family: Safe Gluten-Free Halloween Candy (2010)
2012 Update: Check out the extensive 2012 Gluten-Free Halloween Candy List from the awesome Jen Cafferty at gfreelife.com.
Here is my own shorter list of items that are NOT gluten-free. This is not an exhaustive list, and there are other candies that are also NOT gluten-free. But I find this list to be useful, as you can steer your child away from selecting the following candies from a trick-or-treat bowl. Of course, you still need to check every piece of candy to make sure it IS gluten-free, but here are some candies you should definitely keep away from.
Candy that is NOT Gluten-Free
Gluten-Free Nosh, 10/2011
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp Bar (Regular 3 Musketeer bars ARE gluten-free)
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Airheads Xtremes (Airheads Bars and Airheads Bars Sour do not contain gluten, but are produced in a facility that uses wheat.
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Butterfinger Crisp, Butterfinger Giant Bar, Butterfinger Snackerz, Butterfinger Medallions, Butterfinger Jingles, Butterfinger Hearts, Butterfinger Pumpkins (Regular Butterfinger Bars ARE gluten-free)
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Good & Plenty, Good & Fruity
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Haribo Black Licorice Wheels, Red Licorice Wheels, Sour S'ghetti, Fruity Pasta, Brixx
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Kit Kat
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Krackle
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Most Lindt chocolates (although Lindt white chocolate and extra dark chocolate –70% cocoa and above–do not contain barley malt)
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE M&M's Pretzel
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Milky Way Bar (Milky Way Midnight Bar and Milky Way Simply Caramel ARE gluten-free)
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Nestle Crunch
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Pringles
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE ReeseSticks Wafer Bar and Reese's Snack Barz (Reese's Peanut Butter Cups ARE gluten-free, though not necessarily the special-shaped Reese's)
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Rice Krispies Treats Mini Squares
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Take 5
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Twix
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Twizzlers (most licorice contains gluten)
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Whatchamacallit
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Whoppers
- NOT GLUTEN-FREE Wonka Bar, Wonka Oompa


text:
Judge ends Katrina flooding lawsuits against feds
NEW ORLEANSDozens of lawsuits seeking damages from the federal government for Hurricane Katrina-related levee failures and flooding in the New Orleans area are over.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. has dismissed the cases. The move comes more than a year after a federal appeals court overturned his ruling that held the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers liable for flooding caused by lax maintenance of a shipping channel.
Duval also has dismissed a parallel lawsuit against a contractor. It claimed excavation work weakened flood walls in New Orleans' Industrial Canal. Duval entered the orders to dismiss the cases Dec. 20.
More than 500,000 residents, businesses and governments filed claims against the Army Corps of Engineers. People in southern Louisiana have long taken for granted that the flooding in the wake of the 2005 storm was a man-made disaster — one caused specifically by the Army Corps of Engineers — and they have wanted the agency to pay up for lost homes and property.
The Army Corps of Engineers claimed immunity from lawsuits related to decisions on flood-control projects, including most levees, based on a 1928 federal law. But lawyers tried to get around that by claiming the agency had been negligent in maintaining navigation channels, including the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.
That channel, dug in the 1960s and closed after the hurricane, funneled Hurricane Katrina's storm surge into parts of New Orleans. Overall, thousands of homes were destroyed, about 1,400 people died in the flood and much of the city was left under water.
Duval had ruled in 2009 that the Army Corps of Engineers was liable for the flooding of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward neighborhood and St. Bernard Parish because the agency failed to properly maintain the channel, allowing protective marshland to wash away.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals initially agreed with that decision in March 2012. But in September, a three-judge panel reversed its earlier opinion, saying the new ruling "completely insulates the government from liability."
The most recent ruling could make it extremely difficult to force the government to pay damages for future mishaps.
Under federal law, the government cannot be sued over actions based "on considerations of public policy," the appeals panel wrote. The Army Corps of Engineers' decisions regarding the shipping channel fall under that protection, the judges wrote.


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So far Altmetric has tracked 1,279 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.4. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its peers.
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What to Watch: Jess over-shares on 'New Girl'
On TV
Jess confesses her true feelings to Nick on tonight's episode of "New Girl." Meanwhile, Nick is trying to impress a female bartender, Schmidt decides to get a fish, and no part of any episode summary explains why this episode is called "Quick Hardening Caulk." Fox 9 p.m. EST.
Trending topic
Lindsey Lohan will spend 90 days in lock-down rehab and five days in jail as part of a plea bargain for violating probation after being charged with lying to an officer, reckless driving and obstruction after a 2012 car accident, Yahoo News reports. Lock-down rehab means Lohan must be at the facility 24/7 and cannot leave the premises for any reason. She also must perform 30 days of community service and complete 18 months of psychological counseling. Lohan was on probation for stealing a necklace in 2011, and arrived to her hearing on Monday 48 minutes late. This will be her sixth trip to rehab.
Hot video: Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn officially announce relationship
GateHouse News Service


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Ring the bell for Champagne
We greatly enjoyed The Knot mixer at the new Summit Hotel in Cincinnati. One of favorite parts of the wedding was the "Ring the Bell for Champagne". Totally click on this link!!!! Wolf & Bird Events, you did an amazing job! The beautiful backdrop for this fun time was provided by Unlimited Events out of Bellbrook, Ohio. Ring bell for Champagne. CLICK THIS VIDEO LINK!!!!!!
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The second week in August marked the 45th anniversary of GenCon. "The best four days in gaming" has grown more than 30 percent since 2010, with over 41,000 badges sold this year. Originally started as a small gathering of Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax's friends, GenCon now finds itself the capstone event amidst a kind of golden age for so-called hobby games. Board gamers, role-playing gamers, LARPers, and war gamers all sit shoulder to shoulder in its massive play spaces, while buskers vie for their attention on the nearly 400-strong vendor floor. Boosted by satellite events like PAX and the un-closeting of an emboldened gamer population at large, there's plenty of room for continued growth.
Buried inside the sacred tome that is GenCon's annual program, amidst the thousands of play sessions of new and old properties, was a listing for an entirely new event—a keynote presentation. To no one's surprise, the keynote presentation was given by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). Their goal? To rally the faithful around their grand experiment called "D&D Next."
The time of troubles
The Dungeons & Dragons family of games has been in and out of a state of civil war throughout its history. Call them "The Edition Wars." OD&D begat AD&D which begat Third Edition, and with each transition came, if not enmity within the ranks, then perhaps the kind of gentle chiding that siblings have for one another across the dinner table. But nothing ruined Thanksgiving quite like the row that developed over the release of Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, colloquially known as D&D 4e.
Released in 2008, this ruleset was like nothing like the ones that had come before it. It emphasized "powers" as the main element of growth for the player character (PC), a catalog of skills which changed and expanded the capabilities of a PC over time. Many of the old guard thought that these powers looked and felt a lot like the skills one might gain in an MMO, with all the buffs, debuffs, and cooldown timers that went along with them. Others lamented the game system's lack of cohesion. Elements of lore and useful rules were scattered haphazardly over dozens of books, each of which were themselves fattened with scores of magical items that began to blur together into a coagulated hunk of loot.
I dove headlong into 4e as soon as it was released, and my own campaign almost immediately became bogged down in combat. What I remembered primarily as a communal storytelling experience during my years playing D&D version 2.5 became a fairly ponderous miniatures wargame with the introduction of 4e.
Several sessions into 4e, I came to a painful realization: if it took 10 encounters to gain a level for a PC, and if our combat encounters continued to span two to four hours of play time each, it would be a very long while before we reached level 10, where great boons were granted and characters truly evolved. To make matters worse, our play space had become a riot of status indicators, books, character sheets, and decks of custom-printed power cards that made setup and teardown a chore. Four years later, we still have yet to reach level 11.
My play group's experience is probably an extreme case, but I'm sure there are plenty of other seasoned gamer groups whose members have families and day jobs that had a similar experience with the 4e rules changes. Anecdotal evidence gleaned from my friendly local game stores, where high level campaign modules still linger on the shelves years after their initial publication, suggests that the fourth edition of D&D has mostly stalled out at retail.
Heavy weighs the head
Mike Mearls is the unassuming man tasked with breathing new life into D&D. The senior manager of research and development for D&D tends to absently brush aside the bouncy, bright shock of reddish hair that rests atop his head. Like many dungeon masters (DMs) I have played with, he is both deliberate and aloof, as likely to drift off in thought as to be preternaturally quick to respond to those around him. But like a particularly engaged classics professor, or a maniacal improv actor, he is terrifically present at the game table. During a press-only playtest on the GenCon floor, he opened up his secret stash of lore for me and a group of colleagues, sharing the introduction to a larger campaign he once played with friends, all set to the new beat of D&D Next.
You're in a lumber town, north of the main areas of the civilized world. For years Axefold was protected by a band of druids and rangers who lived in the old wood and would hunt down orcs, goblins, and other monsters… 20 years ago a great green dragon descended upon the wood. The rangers and druids came together and fought a great, epic battle in the woods. The folk of the town could hear the thunder of spells, lighting spilling down from the sky, storm clouds gathering and the dragon's great roar… And then there was silence.
D&D Next will be the most rigorously playtested role-playing product that WotC has ever brought to market.
In May, D&D Next launched the largest playtest that WotC has ever assembled, letting anyone sign up to download and try early ruleset and adventure material, and then share their thoughts with the development team. Armed with a set of classic pre-generated characters and only the most meager selection of rules, these testers have set out on a quixotic journey to try to break the D&D Next system before it's ready. D&D Next will be the most rigorously playtested role-playing product that WotC has ever brought to market; the company says it has already received much more feedback than it did during the entirety of the 4e beta.
Mearls and his team are serious about the business of play. Their goal is nothing short of redefining what D&D is, to return it to its core principles of exploration, adventure, and storytelling. To hear them tell it, this won't merely be another layer to cover over what has come before, but a flexible ruleset with variable complexity, perfectly capable of playing as a tactical miniatures game like 4e, or as an old school "talkie." Without a 1-inch grid ever being rolled out on the table, and without a single ounce of pewter cast in the image of an elf or a dwarf, D&D Next games can consist entirely of the interactions between the players and the DM, of dice and words alone.
Days passed… bled into weeks… into months without any sign of the druids and rangers who once watched over the wood or the great dragon they fought. Even to this day no one is sure where this battle took place or what transpired. But most folk presume that the rangers and their allies and the dragon were all slain. And of course without all the forest's protectors and overseers, bands of goblins, orcs, and the other creatures have slowly begun to return and threaten Axefold.